Cambridge Satchel Company will open its first physical store this month, in
London’s Covent Garden.

Four years ago, Julie Deane’s business hopes rested on £600, a list of 10 start-up ideas and a desire to make enough money to take her young daughter out of the local state school, where she was being bullied.

The company will open its first physical store this month, in London’s Covent Garden.

“We’re going in the opposite direction to most businesses – we started online and now we’ve got a bricks and mortar store,” she said.

Ms Deane, 45, is hoping the humble genesis of the company will draw in shoppers. The bags will be displayed on “kitchen table”-style units, while the shelves are made of leather panels from the satchels.

She insisted that she is not nervous about taking on a retail presence at a time of weak consumer confidence. “The internet is a lot easier but seeing some of the gloom on the high street has made us more creative,” she said.

Last year, Ms Deane was in the Drapers list of the 100 most influential people in fashion – alongside Stella McCartney. Google summarised Ms Deane’s story in an advertisement for its Chrome browser as “London. New York. Our Kitchen”.

“People like to get behind us, get in touch and tell us the ideas for their businesses. Our story has really opened a lot of doors,” she said.

Approximately half of the company’s projected sales of £15m come from overseas. The Cambridge Satchel Company has also started up its own UK manufacturing facility outside Leicester, and is about to upgrade to a facility four times the size of its current factory.

Finding workers with traditional manufacturing skills has proved a challenge and Ms Deane is offering a number of apprenticeships. “Being able to operate a machine is one thing. Real craftsmanship is different,” she said.

Asked if the Covent Garden shop represents the beginnings of a UK retail empire, Ms Deane said: “One store is enough – for the next eight weeks, at least.”

Humble beginnings

At home, in the garage and at church – three household names that had humble beginnings show that a global business can be started from almost anywhere.

Specsavers

Dame Mary Perkins founded the glasses empire on a table-tennis table in a spare bedroom. The business has made her a billionaire and is the market leader in countries around the world.

Google

The search giant was famously incorporated in a garage in California in 1998. It took founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin under six months to realise that they needed to move it.

Virgin

Sir Richard Branson founded a mail order record label in a church crypt in 1970. That first Virgin brand has spawned almost 400 companies over the past four decades.